Every shopper's nightmare was lived out on Thursday when a horde of rowdy teens stampeded through a New York mall -- screaming, wreaking havoc and banging on shop doors.

"Things are back to normal with more police around," Joli Chen, a worker at a beauty supply store, said Saturday. "But the other day was crazy. Black Friday was normal compared to that. They were making trouble."

Flash mobs have been known to descend on malls across the country, singing, dancing and even accompanying couples getting engaged. But the Brooklyn flash mob isn't the first to turn ugly.

In the summer of 2012, a Walmart in Jacksonville, Florida, was mobbed by 300 people who entered the store and destroyed the security system, according to CNN affiliate WJXT.

Police said the group destroyed an electronic anti-shoplifting security scanner that cost about $1,500, WJXT reported. The massive crowd descended on the store after a party that was broken up nearby. No arrests were made.

In New York, Chen and others described a flash mob of more than 300 teens who, at first, started gathering at Brooklyn's Kings Plaza Shopping Center before erupting in a frenzy of yelling, running, shoving and pounding on doors. Many stores were forced to shut down on the busy shopping day after Christmas.

"They tried to scare us," Chen said. "They were cursing at us. The police tried to keep them moving but there were so many. And there are so many entrances, they kept coming back in."